Yummy Flaxseed Bread

I recently bought a small bag of flaxseeds without knowing what they really were or what they were good for. So through my trusted sources (wikipedia), I found out that the answer was just about anything. They are really healthy and good for you (my very infomed summary of what I found out) and can be used for a number of things. I chose to make them into bread which turned ut just wonderful. If you wonder why the meassures are a bit weird, it's because I've taken them from American meassures in cups. 1 cup=240ml.

Ingredients:

1tbsp dry yeast
410ml luke warm water
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp neutral oil
3/4 tsp salt
240ml of flaxseed flour (made of of 180ml whole flaxseeds).
480ml wholewheat flour
240ml plain white flour
Poppyseeds

Start by disolving the yeast in the warm water. Make sure the water is not too hot or you will kill the yeast. I usually go for finger warm, which means it's pleasant without burning me. Leave 5 minutes.

Here are the whole flaxseeds. They could go in like this is you then adjusted the four afterwards.

But I chose to blitz them in my blender for a few minutes until they have a floury consistency.

Add the honey to the yeast.

Add the salt.

And the oil.

Pour in the flaxseed flour.

Add half of the wholewheat flour.

Stir everything together before you continue.

Add the other half of the wholewheat and the rest of the flour bit by bit. You should now get a dough that sticks together.

Put it out on a flour dusted table and start kneading it well. You might have to add a bit of flour if it's too sticky but don't add too much or you will end with a dry bread. Knead well for at least 10 minutes. This is probably the most impotant part of bread-making, where you develope the gluten. 10-12 minutes of serious kneading should be sufficient.

Put a bit of oil in the bowl where you were mixing the dough and put the dough back in and likewise rub the dough a bit on top with oil. This will keep the dough moist and make the rising easier. Cover and leave in a warm place until it has doubled in size. It might take between an hour or two. Alternative, leave it in the fridge for a slow rise which helps develope more taste. The key is that when it's double in size it's ready.

Punch it down a bit but don't knead it again. Put it in a greased bread form or line it with baking paper (less mess later). Cut a 1 cm deep line through it with your sharpest knife. This will help the bread rise and bake evenly.

Leave it to rise for about half an hour or until it's a couple of centimetres above the form. Then sprinkled it with some poppyseeds. Put it in a preheated oven at 175º for 40 minutes. Put a small tray with water in the oven too. this will help to increase the humidity in the oven which results in better bread.

Another trick is to spray the bread every 10 minutes with a vaporizer with water.

When the bread is done, take it out of the form and tap it underneath. It should sound hollow. Make sure the bread can "breathe" while it's cooling down. Let it cool down for at least 5-10 minutes. This is not just to torture you but to let the bread finish cooking on the inside.

Here you are: fresh, homemade flaxseed bread. Healthy and really easy as you can see.